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Car Care and The Canadian Seasons

Check out the preventable measures that Canadians can take to ensure their vehicles are healthy all year long.

September 2017

Canadian summers are revered. As soon as June hits, Canadians are hitting patios, cottages, and road trips. For two of those three activities, car maintenance is a must. Best to leave cars at home for patio fun.

Canadian car maintenance in the unpredictable summer weather comes down to temperature, tire pressure, and fluids (and of course all the regular responsible car ownership upkeep). As we all know, it can be summer today, winter tomorrow, and everything in between. Keep your eyes on these weather-sensitive areas of your vehicle for year-round maintenance.

Temperature (your comfort vs your car’s)

The average Canadian summer day: dewy in the morning, some misleading cloud, followed by the world’s most perfect weather, then two minutes of torrential rain, then shocking humidity, and finally a muggy eve. Unpredictable, to say the least.

Unfortunately, cars and people don’t have the same comfort gauge. So when you’re scorching and pumping the A/C, your car is freaking out because it’s dealing with two conflicting extreme temperatures. And on a long road trip? Your engine may not be your biggest fan. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge (if it gets too close to “H,” it’s time to put your car’s comfort first and blast the heat. Avoid that breakdown).

Tire Pressure

Make checking tire pressure fun, like you’re a racecar driver.

There is nothing safe about driving a car with over or under-inflated tires. And that extreme weather discussed above? It highly affects tire pressure. This is one of those things that can be easily ignored until it’s unignorable.

Living the proactive life, ensure that the tire pressure is what it needs to be (just give it what it wants). I am sure you know tire pressure information is on the door jam between your car door and seat.

Now that we’ve discussed this, you don’t have an excuse.

Coolant (or carelessly named ‘antifreeze’)

The job of coolant is to keep your car cool...why would you call it antifreeze!? That’s a prankster at work. Whatever you call it, make sure you use it. Canadian heat can deplete coolant (let’s retire the word antifreeze) and your engine could be at risk. A safety and expensive risk.

And of course, keep an eye out for superpower inducing looking puddles below your car. Coolant leaks are easily identifiable because they are bright green. Green for ‘go take care of that leak now’.

Aside from general car upkeep, responsible temperature, tire pressure, and coolant monitoring, a few other tips include: parking in the shade/equipping your windshield with a sunshield, getting car washes so weird summer liquid doesn’t bake into your car, and head to the cottage/beach because it’s just healthy for everyone.